Small town vs. Big City

A few months after the turn of the millennium, BD hired on with our store.  Fresh from the halls of the small roman double pizza, he was delighted to discover a hotbed of Magic activity in our store.  BD is from New York City, and it took about 90 seconds for him to bring this up upon meeting him.

One night as Sean and I were arguing the merits of Dark Ritualing into Nightmare on turn 4 versus playing Shivan Dragon off of 5 mountains and a Lotus Petal, BD interrupted us.   "I guess I gotta show Podunk, Missouri how Magic is really played."

When Sean and I both started laughing, he said in a very serious tone, "Wuddya two sweethearts laughing at?"

Don't get me wrong.  BD was a funny guy.  He was always ready for a good time. But he also thought that Rolla had nothing on NYC.  He was right on everything except Magic and the male-to-female ratio.  (The University of Missouri: Rolla skewed both statistics absurdly.)

"Hold that thought, boys.  I got my mutha mailing me my cards.  We'll see who's laughing then."

Sure enough, a few days later, BD arrived at the store all grins.  He invited all the card players back to his place for beer and Magic.  Sean said he couldn't make it, but after BD went out on a delivery Sean passed me his rare binder with instructions to "Just Win, Baby!". 

I felt like King Arthur after the Lady of the Lake passed him Excalibur.  I felt like Ponce de Leon upon finding the Fountain of Youth. 

I was finally holding Power. 

When you're a 21 year old college drop out turned pizza delivery driver, it's the small things in life that get you through, ya know?

How much power do you need?

That night after close, I rolled up on BD's apartment ready for some action.  I had my own version of Sligh that used Wheel of Fortune, Memory Jar, and Goblin Welder for card advantage, and Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, and Mana vault to fuel Pillage, Rain of Salt, and Stone Rain for tempo advantage.  Sean's Lotus, Moxen, and Bazaar had been added, and I felt really good about my prospects.

While BD, Ben and some guys I didn't know finished up their games, I perused the prospective competition.

It was decided that everyone put up a $10 rare for a single elimination tournament.  No sideboards.  No time limits.  Best two out of three.

I ante'd my beloved Sliver Queen.  The highlights of the prize pool were Gaia's Cradle, a mildly played Taiga, a Morphling, and a black bordered Urzatron set. 

Unfortunately, there was not climactic Final round where I faced BD for the Glory of Rolla.  He and I got paired up in the first round.

He was playing a suicide black deck.  Game one went fast.  He won the roll, Dark Ritualed out a Necropotence, and then drew 4 cards.  I played lotus into Ball Lightning and mountain into Black Vice.  The game was over before it had even begun.

Game two was a war of attrition.  He had enough removal and discard that I got off the ground really late.  Duress took my Memory Jar.  Terror killed my Ball Lightning.  Hymn to Tourach took my burn.  But after that, I managed to get moving a little.  A top decked Stone Rain ate his Lake of the Dead on turn 6.  Turn 7 I resolved Goblin Welder and on turn 8 I managed to get back Memory Jar back into play for the useless Black Vise sitting on the field.  The Memory Jar allowed me to drop a couple of moxen including Mox Diamond, and that fueled enough burn to win the following turn.

The rest of the tournament was a blur.  I was so pumped to shut down Big City BD that I didn't care if I won or lost the tournament.  I eventually faced WUG Replenish and his Story Circle shut down my entire game.  He managed to draw into it early both games, and Opalesence gave him the beat down necessary to win the tournament.

Precisely enough power to do exactly what I need.

Tempo is better than damage.  Why?  Because the game of magic is a millitary strategy game set in a fantasy multiverse.  As Napoleon taught all of Europe, it's the trains that win the war, not the soldiers.  Napoleon, Bismark, and Hitler all learned the hard way that when the train lines run out, the soldiers could no longer prosecute the war effectively.  In Magic, the ability to deploy your resources most effectively is tempo is on one side of the coin.  The other side of the coin is the ability to deny your opponent that same capacity.  Boomeranging a land on turn two when you're on the play is almost equivalent to a Time Walk,  Plow Under was extreme tempo in the Tooth & Nail decks of Mirrodin block that was necessary to keep up with the absurd tempo of Affinity.

When Richard Garfield designed M:tG, the implementation of "one land per turn" was fundamental to the playability of the game.  This is evidenced by the fact that Moxen are still some of the most sought after cards--even the supposedly balanced varieties such as Chrome or Diamond.  Tempo is all about violating that notion.  Lotus Petal is 1/3 the power of Black Lotus and it's still powerful enough to have a history of being banned or restricted because it grants too much tempo.

Card advantage is better than tempo because trains have no military capability without soldiers.  Card advantage is the Magic equivalent Military Industrial Complex.  Without the ability to produce guns, tanks, ammo, ships, and planes, a nation has no effective fighting capacity.  A 100 million man army with nothing more than rifles will lose to bombers, artillery, & tanks because of the multiplicative effects of the combined arms.

The Magic equivalent is Ancestral Recall, Wrath of God, Fact or Fiction, Jace the Mind Scultptor, Arc Lightning, etc.  The list goes on and on.  

Exploit either resource significantly enough and the game is yours.  Exploit both simultaneously and you're well on your way to winning the tournament.

(The problem is that everyone has a plan until someone gets punched in the mouth.)